16 August 2024
Beth and Graham Lawson are two peas in a pod. Over their 55-year marriage they’ve raised a family together and fostered children, bred and showed dogs together and supported causes for rescue dogs. Now they volunteer together for Harbour Hospice, and in July they were recognised alongside 148 other kindhearted individuals at the Long Service Awards, for 10 years’ service.
Beth, 77, and Graham, 85, do a shift every Tuesday and Saturday at Hospice’s Ellice Road shop in Glenfield. While Beth, a retired NZ Post manager, sorts and prices homeware, Graham, a retired builder, tests and repairs furniture and electrical goods.
The grandparents of three from Greenhithe say they don’t know where the 10 years have gone because they work alongside “such a good bunch of people”.
They say they love the camaraderie and Beth – a self-professed homebody – appreciates the fact volunteering gets her “out of the house”.
The duo, who met through mutual friends then began socialising together with the same crowd, began volunteering for Hospice after Beth saw a poster asking for volunteers at Harbour Hospice’s North Shore Inpatient Unit in Takapuna. At the time Hospice was caring for her sister, who had cancer.
“When the hospital first tried to send Margaret to Hospice she didn’t want to go. They said ‘why don’t you just go there until they can get your pain stabilised then’. I went to see her later that day she said ‘this is beautiful Beth’. So she stayed.
“They were really, really good to Maggie,” Beth continues. “They had a bed in her room so that family were with her 24/7 because Maggie didn't want to be alone. And they gave the family information and guidance about what was happening, which took away a lot of the fear for us. The care and the support was really, really amazing. So, if we can help in some way by volunteering, why not?”
During a shift Beth will often pop across to Graham with something to fix and Graham admits he likes looking across to see his wife chatting and working with the other volunteers. “It’s nice having one another there,” Beth says. “Yeah, we’ve always seemed to mix things up alright,” adds Graham.
Last year 1200 volunteers gave 151,000 hours of their time to Harbour Hospice. Volunteers are crucial to the delivery of the service. Says Harbour Hospice Chief Executive Jan Nichols, “Without our volunteers we simply couldn’t do what we do.” If you’d like to volunteer for Harbour Hospice please email volunteer@harbourhospice.org.nz. As well as retail roles like Beth’s and Graham’s, there are roles that involve visiting or driving patients or helping in Hospice’s kitchens or gardens, and more.
This story was published in Channel magazine’s July 2024 issue.
